Quince Mania!

There is very, very exciting garden news. After years of growing quince plants, we finally have tiny little quinces. We bought the original plant, which we liked for its ornamental value, about 5 years ago. Then we thought it would be fun to actually have two and get some fruit. So we bought a second, but its flowers were red and it bloomed a few weeks later than the first and we were thwarted. Last fall we put in the third quince (I feel secure that we are the only people in our suburb with three quinces. We may be the only house with even one.) and it worked! There are tiny little quinces on the original quince. Now I've never seen a quince before, let alone eaten one, so I've been doing some research to find out more about this food and what we should do once they actually ripen (assuming they do). Turns out raw quinces are basically inedible (who knew?), though they apparently cook up well. People make jams and such from them - apparently the secret is drowning quince in sugar. I've found that most foods are improved by being awash in either cheese or sugar, so that was not surprising to me.

In other food news, we have our first CSA shipment from the farm - lots of yummy salad greens and herbs and bunches of rhubarb. I made banana rhubarb muffins the other day and we're going to cook up a raspberry rhubarb pie soon. There is a whole rhubarb information page where I got these recipes - check it out.